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So Friday is the big day. In a highly anticipated wedding, not only in the United Kingdom but the world, there is some controversy if pubs and drinking establishments will be allowed to stay open longer and be a bit lax on the rules in the UK. Some will and some won’t as the nation prepares for a four day Bank Holiday where drinking is expected to go up a notch.
Early responses from the 44 licensing boards north of the Border show some are refusing to get in line with plans in England and Wales to award additional drinking time to pubs on Friday, April 29 and the following weekend. … (Source: Medical News Today, 04/28/11) Comment by Active: The Boozification of the Royal wedding. About Grownups who don’t know how to party:
Today is the big day. Media frenzy is at its height and people’s expectations are on their peak when the highly anticipated Royal wedding in London, UK will take place. But as Britain prepares for the festivities, there’s not only controversy about wedding dresses, wedding date, etiquette and so on. There is also some controversy if pubs and bars should or should not be allowed to open longer and if it should be allowed to be “lax on the rules”.
“The world doesn’t need more booze, Europe doesn’t need more booze and Britain surely doesn’t need more booze”, says Andrea Lavesson, who is the President of Active – sobriety, friendship and peace, and continues: “Every time there is a big event, we hear these calls for a suspension of existing rules, so that grownups could use more alcohol. But more alcohol means more violence, more road accidents, more suffering and deaths. And all that certainly doesn’t belong to festive occasions like today.” …

The objective of this study was to see whether levels of alcohol consumption newly included as „moderate“ in proposed changes to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans are associated with significant levels of alcohol-related harm. … Conclusions: We recommend two alternative approaches to rewording the proposed changes to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans that would avoid suggesting that there are benefits associated with the gray area of alcohol consumption. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 72, 453–458, 2011) (Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/27/11) jsad.com, May 2011

There is growing pressure for the government to tighten up New Zealand’s alcohol laws following a report into the death of a teenager from binge drinking.
Sixteen-year-old James Webster died from acute alcohol poisoning after attending a party in Auckland’s Grey Lynn in May last year.
Coroner Gordon Matenga recommended in the report that parents and schools develop alcohol awareness programmes to improve education around the issue.
However principals and health promotion experts have said this morning that it will take more than education to tackle the problem. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/25/11) tvnz.co.nz, 04/21/11 Comment: This is what has to be said to most governments in the western world.

Aims: To analyse the effects of age, period and cohort (APC) on light and binge drinking in the general population of Finland over the past 40 years. …Conclusions: Light drinking has increased over time for each cohort, with no substantial differences between cohort profiles. Binge drinking has increased with more recent cohorts and there are distinct differences between cohort profiles, especially among women. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/21/11)

Recommendations to reduce harm
This research project seeks to examine the impact of white cider on dependent drinkers. It examines the history, production and taxation of white cider, and considers the implications for future taxation, health and homelessness policies. (Quelle: Alcohol Policy UK, 04/21/11)

International Conference: 12th and 13th October 2011, Parc Thistle Hotel, Cardiff, Wales
Cigarette smoking is highly prevalent among people with alcohol use disorders. People who are dependent on alcohol are three times more likely than those in the general population to be smokers, and people who are dependent on tobacco are four times more likely than the general population to be dependent on alcohol. Alcohol use problems are associated with higher levels of nicotine dependence and a lower likelihood -of smoking cessation. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/19/11)

Newer veterans’ groups are addressing alcohol abuse among young soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan by holding alcohol-free meetings. NPR reports that with alcohol abuse becoming a major problem with younger veterans, groups like Dryhootch in Milwaukee are trying to attract these vets with coffee instead of beer.
Dr. David Rudd, scientific director at the National Center for Veterans Studies, Utah University, tells NPR that nearly 20 percent of current vets suffer from anxiety disorder or depression, and many self-medicate with alcohol. This fact, coupled with the waning membership in traditional veteran groups such as Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion, is driving the new alcohol-free approach. … (Source: Join Together, 04/14/11)

A new report based on a national survey shows that only 1.2 percent of the nation’s more than 7.4 million adults aged 21 to 64 with an untreated alcohol abuse disorder perceive they could benefit from treatment. The report released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in conjunction with National Alcohol Screening Day, April 7, highlights the need to raise awareness about adult problem drinking, how to identify when someone has a problem, how to confront a problem drinker and how to get help. (Source: Medical News Today, 04/07/11)

Almost one in ten (9.6%) cancers in men and three in ten (3%) cancers in women in Western Europe is caused by former and current alcohol consumption, finds a paper published on bmj.com today.
The study focuses on France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Greece, Germany and Denmark. Source: Medical News Today, 04/07/11) our Online-Comment: The figure regarding women is not correct. Most probably it’s (as from an other source) one in 33 women, that’s 3%. But also in the BMJ-Text the total figures are questionable in the Abstract.
10% of cancers in men are due to alcohol consumption. Of those 57% are avoidable if men stick to the recommended amounts of daily consumption. 3% of cancers in women are alcohol related and 81% avoidable. That means that with men 43% and with women 19% of the cases are connected to a small amount of daily alcohol consumption which is regarded as not dangerous and is even propagated by the alcohol industry as health positive.

It is known that taxation on alcohol products may effectively reduce the alcohol consumption. However, whether alcohol taxation may lead to a decrease in alcohol attributed disease mortality (ADM) has been inclusively.
We conducted this time-series analysis to assess the effect of alcohol tax policy intervention in 2002 on rate of ADM in Taiwan. … This study demonstrated that alcohol taxation policy may pose favorite influences on the time trend of ADM rate in Taiwan, and such influence was most noteworthy in young and middle aged men. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/06/11) springerlink.com, 04/01/11